The Circumstance of Team BLDR
by SageZan
Summary: With the next semester at Beacon starting up, the mid-year tryouts for new students were now underway. And with them, new faces of a single team will begin to shake up the school year in more ways than one, from disrupting the dynamic of Beacon itself to being involved in unexpected events within Vale, all the while being more open with each other. Witness the start of team BLDR.


**Chapter 1**

**Welcome to this new story! This is one I've actually been thinking about for a couple of months now and thought, "Hmm, I should make this shit. Seems fun."****And that's exactly what I'm doing now. But this AN is gonna be quick as I don't want to keep you waiting. This story will most likely be one of the ones that I'll be focused on the most while EB will be in the back burner, not because I'm giving up on it but to make it so it can flow well as it will be one of the longer stories I'll make. This is just to let you guys know.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"_Where are you?!"_ A young man removed his scroll away from his ear as the girl on the line yells at him. _"You told me that you'd meet me here at 7:00 to be early, and it's 7:56! Everyone's gonna leave in 4 minutes! What do you have to say for yourself, Devin?"_

"I say that you're over-reacting and that I'm already on my way to the airships now," Devin replied in a monotone voice, eyeing the flying vehicles in the far distance opposed to where he was currently. "I'll get there before they get to far, you know this already."

"_I do… but you could've at least told me you were gonna be this late." _

"I'm sorry about that, but I was in the middle of a transaction that I had to finish before you called me. Second, I'm not that late," Devin wove his way through the early risers of Vale, still a few blocks away from the Bullhead terminal. "You're just impatient."

"_Hmm, besides the fact that this isn't true but I'm going to do my hardest to pretend that it is, at least I'm here with students already boarding the vessels and I'm about to join them_. _Look, just make sure you get here before the ships leave. And make sure you look good, can't have a bad first impression at Beacon."_

"You do know that most of the new students are going to be wearing something more along the lines of street clothes than anything else, right?"

He heard her groan on the line. _"Whatever, just make sure you don't have any oil stains or something and yea, I know you're about being professional and all, but just make sure. Just get here quickly, lest you tarnish your little reputation of always being said professional," _She added, with Devin almost seeing the smirk on her face.

"Alright then, I'll see you there, Lillian."

"_I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME LILY, YOU FUC-" _Devin hung up before he heard her angry rant about not calling her by her nickname. "Then don't act smug for no reason hypocrite," He muttered to himself before pausing and seeing the airships in the distance with the last of the students going aboard. "Well, at least she didn't oversleep and got there on time for once."

He walks by a window and paused, choosing to do as she said since she would probably tell if he didn't somehow, which was quite often. He turns and stops at the window, its surface showing him his own reflection, hazel eyes staring back at him as he roams his person. His dirty blonde hair reached to the nape of his neck seemingly unruly but with a tousled style to make him seem like he didn't put any effort into it... with was correct in that regard. He looks at his amber colored face to see anything out of the ordinary, which honestly wasn't necessary since he did so before he left.

Seeing nothing different, he looks down at his attire to see if anything was indeed out of place, as he admittedly didn't really think about when he woke up this morning, something he would not tell Lily about if he didn't want to hear any end of it.

A black hoodie with green lined patterns along his arms, chest, and hood covered a white, form-fitting t-shirt with matching cargo pants with it. On his hands, he had fingerless gloves with some small metal rings on the end of each opening on his fingers. On his feet were a set of standard combat boots. As an afterthought, he lifts both arms and checks the weight and shakes them for a bit as to check and see if there were any rattling or out of place sounds.

He continued his walk to the open terminal after seeing everything was in order, adjusting his hoodie along the way but turned his head from hearing some yelling behind him. He sees that some people were scrambling to move out of the way as a large mass of orange and black went barreling past them towards the airships yelling, "Wait! Wait! Wait!", while saying apologies along the way.

He rushes past Devin apologizing as he did, getting closer to the platform, although that didn't stop the vessels from ascending, however, as they began to lift off the ground into the air, starting to go past the platforms. The person sees this and with one last burst of speed, he makes a long jump towards one of them that still had its doors still open. He lands his foot through the opening right before the doors close, effectively tumbling in the airship before slamming face-first on the other side.

"I made it!" He yells from inside the vessel loudly enough for Devin to hear him.

"…Ok then." Devin shrugged that whole thing off, seeing that the airships have started to make their way towards the determined destination. He walks up and stands on the platform, scanning the windows for some telling of where Lily would be. He soon found his answer as he spots bright red hair with silver tips covering the head of a girl with her face pressed against the window of the same ship the guy jumped into, a puffed-up face and squinting gray eyes staring back at him. "Ah, there you are." He waves at her.

/-/

Lily huffs as she spots Devin walking up and standing in the middle of the platform looking at the airships, most likely trying to find her. What a rude boy, making her wait all that time and even not being there together with her. This was the next step of their lives as they were invited to become students at Beacon Academy. Granted, it was an invitation through somewhat… illegal means, but still getting the pass to get on the first flight to Vale from Mistral. And Devin just had to be late on the very day mid-transfers get a chance to get into Beacon, and not only that but having her yell in front of people as well with some nosy people still taking some quick glances her way, her colorful vocabulary still ringing in some ears. It's his fault for calling her the forbidden name given to her at birth.

Why can't he be like other people who would actually rush to get to an important meeting or place on time, like that one guy who basically just steamrolled through a crowd and jumped in the same ship she's in just seconds ago, turning to see said person with his head down and breathing heavily on the ground 10 feet away from her, his wild orange and black striped hair diverting attention from almost everyone in the ship. Though it was cool how he basically did a last-minute save for himself. She can respect that.

She looks back out the window, pressing her face against the window to emphasize her disappointment in Devin, just to get an unenthusiastic wave in response after identifying her.

Huffing and rolling her eyes, she checks both seats beside her, seeing them both empty and pointing at both sides for him to see. He nods and flashes a quick OK sign before making the motion of sitting down. She turns back around and sits down in her own seat with her elbow propped on an arm rest and fist on her cheek. Feeling a shift next to her, she puts on the best pout she could muster.

"You're late. And today of all days! What would happen if you missed the airship to get to Beacon for initiation?"

"If that happened, then I would've just taken the next one that would have come right after this one. I'm pretty sure I told you that airships run within hour intervals to and from the school," Lily peeks out her right eye to glance at Devin, who was now sitting right next to her, both arms and legs crossed comfortably with his head leaned back on his headrest. "And even if I missed that one, I still would've made it there later on anyway."

"I know, it's just that I thought that it would be cool to do it together like it's the first step for us," Lily closes her eye again, looking away from him.

"Lillia-" He pauses when he sees she creased her brow. "Lily, it's not really something special since we basically do almost everything as a pair anyway. Also, it was _you_ who wanted to do this, not me. I came along since I have to cause you're you. And that's saying a lot since you can be overbearing with people without me around."

"You're starting to step on thin ice here, Devin," Lily threatens, her brow creasing more in annoyance.

"Am I? But that's how you are. Brash, sporadic and easily triggered to certain things, you are a handful to be around, not only for myself but for others as well. In all honesty, while you can find common ground with others and make friends, you still need better people skills anyway, so this might be good chance for you to practice so you won't be making any outbursts to people who might rub you the wrong way since you have a quirk of being quite bipolar-esque from time to time." Devin says this, not at all keeping his voice in a whisper that only she can hear, as students around them can hear what he's saying and noticing the same girl who had a mini-rant minutes before getting more and more angry as he went on. They chose right to back away from what they assume to be a future massacre.

"… you sure love talking like the dead man you are," Lily opens both eyes this time, shifting herself to look him dead into his own. "I do hope you have some parting words that I can send back to your mother."

Devin stares back at her nonchalantly, before reaching in his side pouch. "Well, either way, I apologize for being late."

Lily puts on a strained smile as veins start to pop on her head. "Oh, and why should I forgive you after that little spiel of yours."

"Look and see for yourself," Devin says.

Lily narrows her eyes at him before huffing. Her eyes start to flicker with a low glow for a second before she stops in a gasp and pounces on him with a genuine smile and happy expression that she didn't have moments ago, making the students reel back at the sudden change. "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

Devin held her back with a hand so she wouldn't try to smother him. "I take it you forgive me for the tardiness then?"

"Yeah! Yup! No problem with that at all anymore, you're forgiven entirely!"

"Good, here you go," Devin brings his hand back into view with a small red bag tied with string.

Lily squeals with joy as she snatches the bag from him and immediately opens it to reveal little cubes of what seems to be white chocolate with little pink swirl designs. She takes one and pops it in her mouth, her smile intensified as she slides back in her seat chewing and savoring the morsel in her mouth. "It's been sooo long since you made these, I was getting withdrawals after the first few weeks of not having any." She swallows the cube and replaces it a second one.

"That's why I stopped, you kept demanding more and ate too much from each batch, so I cut off your supply. The only reason I made more was because of this whole thing. Just don't expect me to make much of it anytime soon. So, you'd better pace yourself with this one." Devin says with a sigh, content and confident that he won't have a cranky Lily next to him for the remaining duration of the trip as he lays back in his seat.

She nods at him before popping one last treat in her mouth and putting the bag in her own pouch and laying back much like himself and hums softly to herself, any and all of her previous angry attitude gone. Devin takes his scroll out with a pair of earphones, plugging them in and selecting some music for himself. He puts them in his ears, pressed play and let the melody of the song playing fill his head as continue on towards the school.

/-/

The airships descend upon Beacon's docking platforms, opening the doors to the acclaimed school in front of the ever-excited students as they start to pile out. Lily was one of the first ones out the ship and stared in marvel at the academy they would try to get in through their initiation. As others start to pile out the airships, she notices people around her hurrying to the school quicker than the others from the other airships with looks of caution. She looks back to see the same guy who did the close save from earlier coming out the ship and with him not being all hunched over like he was for the entire trip, she can see him in full.

He was quite a tall one, around 6'3" in height, with a large, muscular build as well. A dark red and black checked button-up covers his torso with a sleeveless grey jacket over it. With black cargo shorts that stop tied below the knees and some dark grey boots, he looks well fitted as his long, wild hair pops out from the outfit. But the thing that is making everyone be in such a nervous state is his rough-looking face. Unlike the top of his head, his eyebrows and goatee were just black in color. He had a scar that went across his right eye and brow, stopping just short of touching his nose. His eyes by themselves made the look more intimidating than anything though, the deep emerald color of them adding a note of fierceness to it.

He walks out, making sure not to bump into anyone in his way. To his right, he sees a group side-eyeing him from one of the other airships. He stops and raises his hand in a slight wave in greeting, only for them to narrow their eyes and make their way towards school. He sighs inwardly, putting his hand down and makes to walk again, only to stop abruptly in surprise as he sees a shorter girl right in his way, looking up at him.

He notices that she was the one who was getting attention talking to a boy next to her during the trip. At 5'6", she had a soft appearance about her as her round face make it apparent, although it paralleled how she acted beforehand. Red, flowing hair reaches the small of her back, ending with faded silver at the tips. She wore a red, short-sleeved shirt with a white floral design around the collar under black overall shorts with black leggings with white and black sneakers completing the outfit.

"That was pretty rude of them not to return a hello. It's common courtesy to do so, one would think," Lily tells him, her eyes on his. "Why don't you start a new one with me? Name's Lily. And you are?" She reaches out a hand at him.

The young man blinks at her for a few seconds before slowly grasping her hand with his own. "Raylen. Raylen Bay," She notices that when he spoke, he makes sure his mouth doesn't open too much. "It's good to meet you." He smiles. One that Lily returns.

"Likewise. Just so you know, mad props for getting on board on time. Shows that you can see being on time important, unlike _some _people," Lily says this looking behind Raylen.

He turns to see the same boy Lily was talking to earlier walking towards them, an earphone still in his ear while the other is free to hear. "I'm pretty sure you've already forgiven me for that," Devin says, walking up and past them. "So, there's no point in bringing up the past for needless events. Not to say that the initiation for Beacon is needless, just your argument of being late for it." He quickly adds to not try and cause a rebuttal on the previous subject.

And he was correct in that matter as Lily tried to speak up when he said that only narrow her eyes at him before she could berate him yet again. "Either way, come meet this new person I just met, Raylen!" She pointed at Raylen in a presenting pose with both hands as the man himself just waved at Devin.

He stopped to look back at her with a stoic expression before looking at the other male. "Hello," he said to Raylen with a curt nod before continuing his walk.

Lily rolled her eyes at his retreating form before turning towards the taller man. "Sorry about his high and mighty rudeness. He doesn't have a good track record of meeting new people on mutual terms."

Raylen shook his head. "It's no problem, I know types like him. He just doesn't talk much to people I'm guessing."

"You got that on the mark." She said with a nod in agreement. _'Though you'd be surprised at how many people he's had to deal with, too.' _She thought.

"But I could gather that when you two were talking on the airship, with the whole you need practice with your bipolar tendencies."

Lily coughs in her hand in an attempt to hide her embarrassment but Raylen saw it either way.

"Well, since that was the case, I might as well start with the friendliest looking person I could find," She said to him, a smile on her features.

Raylen stares at her in surprise, never thinking he would hear outside from anyone he knew personally. "I- well, thank you for letting me be the first to help," He returned her smile with his own.

Lily nodded her head happily.

"If you two are done," Both teens turn to see Devin still there looking at them. "We need to get going. It seems that the Deputy Headmistress has made her appearance."

True to what he said, Glynda Goodwitch approaches all of them with grace in her step and firmness in her eyes. "Welcome all of you to Beacon. As you may already be aware, my name is Professor Goodwitch, Deputy Headmistress to Headmaster Ozpin and combat instructor here. If you would follow me, I shall show you where you will be attempting your initiation to be accepted." She states bluntly, turning and walking back into the school, everyone present immediately following her instruction to stay close behind her, all the while looking down and inputting something her scroll.

Walking past the main avenue courtyard and into the main halls of Beacon, the soon-to-be students were greeted with not only the interior structure of the school with its high ceiling, granite columns and marbled tiles, but with some current occupants of Beacon who had no classes this day and were walking and going about their free day, some sparing glances at them while others not too interested in the new blood.

Continuing past the main hall, the group made their way into the large amphitheater where Glynda stops and turns to her group, all of them awaiting any further instruction.

"Where we are now is the amphitheater, where some of you will come back to when initiation is over. For most of you, this may be the last time you see this space this year," Many were nervous about this statement as those who knew of the Headmistress would know that when she says something like this in any regard, it is meant to be taken to heart. "Right now, you will have an hour to prepare yourselves before the test will start. Your weapons and equipment that you sent over when asked to after receiving the invitation will be in assigned lockers that I am now sending to each of your scrolls respectively, as well as the location of where you will be doing your test. Be sure that you are not late to it or it will count as you not having any strong intention at being Huntsmen. Are there any questions regarding what I said you may have any concerns about?"

A single hand reaches up immediately after she says this. "Yes, you upfront."

A young man nods at the acknowledgment. "As you said, we sent our weapons to this school beforehand but we also sent our luggage as well. May I ask where they might be if you would?"

"Ah, yes. I was leaving that for the last thing I would say before letting you all go until the time came, but all of your luggage is here safe and sound but will be sent back from where you came from if you do not make the cut this year. Anything else needed to be said?"

He shook his head. "No, thank you."

"Alright then, with that, I will leave you all to your devices until the hour passes for your initiation," And with a short nod to them, Glynda walks out the large room, leaving the teens to go about their business, either going straight towards the locker rooms to get their equipment or leaving to see what Beacon holds in store for them.

Lily stretches her arms before looking at both males beside her. "Ok, we got an hour to spend, wanna look around the place for a little bit?" She asked.

"I don't have a problem doing so, it'll be cool to see what we can expect if we make it in," Raylen replied.

"You two have fun with that," Devin turns towards the exit of one of the other hallways leading into the amphitheater. "I'll see you later at the testing site."

Lily groans at him. "Really? Can't you ever just relax at a new place, like once?"

"No," Was Devin's last response as he left the area.

"I swear, that boy is going to needs to learn how to take it easy one of these days," Lily says as she rubs her temples in frustration. She looks up at her large acquaintance. "Well, since it's just us for now, where you like to start, big guy?"

Raylen hums then smiles sheepishly. "Actually, I'm hoping that we could see if the cafeteria would still be serving any last-minute breakfast. Kinda overslept and had to skip the meal getting to the airships," As if hearing his words, the low growl of his stomach made itself known and heard by many near him, causing him to blush.

Holding back a chuckle, Lily instead nods with her own smile. "Might as well, it'll be a good chance to see the kinds of cuisine served here."

She walks to a hallway, waving at Raylen for him to follow as they make their way towards the dining hall.

/-/

Almost an hour had passed as the teens here for acceptance into Beacon stand on the cliff right above the Emerald Forest, with Glynda there as well in front of them, awaiting the last of them to arrive. Of the people already there, one was understandably and properly annoyed.

"This is the second time today he's doing this today. Twice! Can you believe that?!" Lily ranted to Raylen who was next to her and, like everyone else there, was on their own launch pads.

He glances down at her with a thoughtful look. "If he was aware of it like you told me he said before, he'll probably be here before an hour fully comes in full. Give him the benefit of a doubt, yeah?"

"You can be right, hell, I should better than you about this," She sighs, twiddling with some of the ends of her hair. "Even still, to not treat this like any of his other business is annoying."

"Even if you do, it won't stop me from doing so if it's of less importance," Lily and Raylen both swivel their heads to see Devin walking up to and towards a pad three spaces down from them. "At least I'm here on time."

"On time you are, Mr. Soltis, although any later would have resulted in an immediate forfeit in attempting the test," Glynda says looking his way after having looked through the current applicant's information for their basic information such as names. "Please be more aware of the time for any matter, no matter the level of importance, if you would."

"I'll be sure to remember that, Miss," Devin replied.

Glynda nods, now addressing the rest of the newcomers. "As of right now, you all are on the very border outskirts of Emerald Forest, Beacon Cliff, the place where you will be put to the test of how you handle something as simple as the task ahead. But, before I explain what you need to do, Headmaster Ozpin formally apologizes for not being here personally to interact with you all but you will have the privilege of meeting him at the end of initiation and he will be viewing the events that shall happen here as well.

"Getting back to it, your objective will be the same as the first years who came at the start of the year. You are to go into the forest to find and retrieve relics located in a ruined temple in the north, all the while you meet your partner for the next four years here. How you will choose your teammates is, to put it simply, based on luck as the first person you make eye contact with shall be your partner. Afterward, with your partner and a relic for each person, you are to make your way back here before times up, which will be within the next three hours. Are there any questions?"

Low murmurs among the teens started and ended just as quickly as one held their hand in the air.

"Yes, Mr. Soltis," She says.

"Who came up with this whole, _"first eye contact"_ rule?" Devin asked with an even tone.

"Headmaster Ozpin did."

Devin scrunched his face at the answer. "No offense to him but, that is the most unreliable way of choosing someone to have your back. Completely asinine." The others around him stared at him as if he had something wrong in his head saying this to _the_ Headmistress.

"Devin! Don't just say that about it!" Lily scolded.

"Please, you were thinking the same thing, too."

She clears her throat at that. "Even so, at least be more polite about it."

"Ok, enough out of the both of you," Glynda interrupted. "While I admit that this unorthodox method of choosing a partner isn't viewed highly with even the other schools, I can't argue that results have been made known because of this. If there is anything else you need to say, please do so now, for any of you," She pauses, looking around for anyone to do or say anything. "If not, then let's get started."

After seeing them ready for launch, Glynda slid the digital lever on her scroll sending each teen into the Grimm infested forest one by one, some yelling out from the abrupt sendoff.

Glynda stares off at them with a sigh. "Good luck to you all. You'll very much be needing it."

* * *

**Alright, so that the newest story I am now going to be writing along with EB and another. To be honest, I was having trouble with EB as I couldn't think of anything solid for a couple of months and have been having problems with my laptop when it came to connection, but that's been resolved.**

**With this new story, I have more creative freedom with what I want to write about since EB was going down one path and having the same mindset writing the story drained me, so now it'll be easier to put out more stories than what I have now. It'll still take a bit but I hope that you guys will enjoy what I put out. With that and the next chapter for EB coming up next, I'll see you guys later.**


End file.
